Cinnamon Roll Murder (Hannah Swensen, #15)(2)

Hannah gripped the wheel tightly. Road conditions would improve once they turned onto the gravel road that led to the Lake Eden Inn, but they still had over five miles to go on asphalt that resembled nothing so much as an improperly frozen hockey rink.

The two sisters rode in silence for several minutes and then Hannah glanced over at her sister. There was a smile on Michelle’s face and Hannah assumed that she was thinking about Lonnie Murphy, the youngest member of the Winnetka County Sheriff’s Department detective squad. They were on their way to meet Lonnie and his cousin, Devin, at the Lake Eden Inn. There they’d enjoy a preview of Sally and Dick Laughlin’s first-ever weekend jazz festival by listening to the headliner band, the Cinnamon Roll Six, rehearse for their performance the following night. When the rehearsal was over, the Swensen sisters would help Sally serve Hannah’s Special Cinnamon Rolls to the small crowd that had been invited to the musical sneak-peek.

The cinnamon rolls smelled wonderful and Hannah’s stomach growled. She hadn’t taken time for lunch, and she did her best to resist an almost overwhelming urge to reach in the back and snag one for herself. Only the fact that she had to keep both hands on the wheel kept her from indulging that urge. They’d taken the sweet treats out of the oven at The Cookie Jar less than thirty minutes ago, frosted them, and covered the pans with foil. Then they’d secured them in the back of the cookie truck and headed for the highway. Now the interior was filled with the mouthwatering scents of warm bread, cinnamon, and chocolate, and Hannah was getting more ravenous by the minute.

Michelle gave a wistful sigh. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. Those rolls smell scrumptious.”

“I was thinking the same thing myself. Maybe we should ... uh-oh!” Hannah stopped speaking abruptly as brake lights began to flash on the roadway ahead. “Holy ... !”

“Cow!” Michelle supplied, finishing the phrase with a much more socially acceptable word than the one that Hannah had been about to utter. “What’s going on up there?”

“I don’t know, but it looks like trouble. And we’re not sticking around to find out!” That said, Hannah reacted almost instantaneously as she wrenched the wheel, pumped the brakes, steered out of a skid, and managed to fishtail onto the curvy access road that led to the Winnetka County rest stop.

Hannah barreled past a speed limit sign that warned motorists to slow to fifteen miles an hour. She knew she was going much faster than that, but she didn’t take her eyes off the road to check as she muscled her truck around the icy curves. When she reached the straightaway that ran past the rest stop, she skidded on a patch of ice and came very close to crashing into the faded Minnesota state map with the red YOU ARE HEREarrow pointing to Lake Eden. Still going well over the posted speed limit, her truck whizzed past the metal picnic table and barely missed wiping out on the corner of the concrete block restrooms.

They were deep in the pine forest now and the ice and snow lay in patches on the road. Hannah, the taller of the two sisters, felt her hair graze the top of the truck. For the first time in her life, she was grateful for the masses of curly red hair that cushioned her head. She was seriously wondering how much more swerving and skidding her truck could take before it shook apart, when they hit a pile of snow that slowed them, and the cookie truck came to rest scant inches from the massive trunk of a magnificent Norway pine.

“We made it,” Hannah said in a shaky voice, stating the obvious.

“We did. I really don’t know how you managed to get us here in one piece.”

“Neither do I.” Hannah realized that she’d been holding her breath and she took a deep gulp of air. And then, because she felt decidedly lightheaded, she lowered the window for a breath of fresh cold air.

Michelle did the same and then she turned to give her sister an unsteady smile. “That could have been bad, but you turned off just in time, and we ...” Michelle stopped short and leaned closer to the open window. She listened for a moment, and then she frowned. “What’s that?”

“More trouble,” Hannah answered, listening to sounds of metal striking metal with considerable force. “It’s a good thing we got off the highway when we did. It sounds like a really bad accident.”

“More than one accident. It’s a chain reaction. They’re still crashing over there and it must be a massive pileup. Do you think we should go back and try to help?”

“Yes, but first we need to call the sheriff’s station. Do you have your cell phone?”

“Right here.” Michelle pulled it out of her pocket. “What do you want me to say?”

“Tell them it’s a multi-vehicle accident and to come out here right away. There are bound to be injuries, so they should put in a call for ambulances. Tell the dispatcher to alert Doc Knight at the hospital so he can set up to receive the accident victims.”

“Got it,” Michelle said, pressing numbers on her phone.

“I’m going to try to get turned around and drive up there.”

“Okay. It’s ringing now. I’ll tell the dispatcher what’s happening.”

As Michelle began to relay the information to the sheriff’s station, Hannah turned the truck around. This took several minutes as the road was narrow, and they couldn’t be of much help if they wound up stuck in the ditch. Her window was still down and she realized that the squeal of brakes and loud crashes had stopped. With the exception of a car horn that had stuck, the night was eerily silent. And then, just as she was about to pull out onto the access road that paralleled the highway, sirens wailed in the distance. Help was coming, and from the sounds of the breaking glass and impacts they’d heard only seconds before, it wasn’t a moment too soon.